Lessons · Project management · the scope statement
The scope statement: what is in, what is out, and how you will know it is done
The scope statement describes the deliverables, the acceptance criteria, what is explicitly excluded, and the assumptions and constraints the plan rests on.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
At handover the customer says the mobile app was obviously included. It was never discussed. If the scope statement says the mobile app is excluded, the conversation is a change request. If it says nothing, the conversation is a fight you lose.
How to think about it
Write the exclusions as carefully as the inclusions. For each deliverable write the test that says done. If you are assuming something you do not control, write it under assumptions so that when it fails, the plan changes instead of your credibility.
Worked example
In scope: web timesheet app, payroll export, training for 120 staffThe deliverables, by name.
Out of scope: mobile app, changes to the payroll system itselfThe things people will assume. Written so the assumption has somewhere to die.
Acceptance: a full month's timesheets export with zero manual correctionsThe test. A sentence somebody can run.
Assumption: the payroll vendor supplies the export format by 1 MaySomething you do not control, named, so its failure is a change and not a surprise.
Your turn
Write the heading that stops the mobile app argument.
of scope: mobile app
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Writing acceptance criteria as adjectives. User-friendly cannot be signed off. A new starter enters a week's hours in under 3 minutes without help can.